Marine biologist Uli Kunz and his fascination with the sea

"For me, World Oceans Day is 365 days a year," says Uli Kunz right at the beginning of the DW interview regarding the UN World Oceans Day, which is on June 8.

Kunz has just returned from Mozambique, where he visited the "Marine Megafauna Foundation," an animal protection organization, on behalf of the TV series "Terra X." There, he observed sharks and violin rays. The latter can only be seen in a few places in the world.

Off the coast of Mozambique, they survive thanks to a rigidly enforced "no-take" zone, a marine protected area from which no animal can be taken. "What happens then is enormous, because all this diversity then spreads out again," Uli Kunz says enthusiastically.

The marine biologist is a well-known advocate for marine flora and fauna. He is a welcome guest on television and talk shows. In the broadest sense, you could call him an adventurer.

The Hamburg native has been a research diver since 2005, going under Arctic ice and swimming amidst humpback whales and orcas while hunting for herring, barreling down into dark wells and tracking down Mayan skeletons in Mexico's water-filled caves. Sometimes he travels alone, sometimes with his colleagues from the Submaris research diving group, which is commissioned by German state agencies or research institutes to examine certain fish species or the marine fauna around the Helgoland archipelago in northern Germany.

Biodiversity and species decline

Kunz carries out work for a number of organizations, including the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research, Greenpeace, World Wide Fund for Nature, and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research. The trained marine biologist undoubtedly has one of the most exciting jobs imaginable, but he never had a career plan: "I wanted to be a doctor, but realized during my studies that I didn't want to get to know just one creature, but many. After that, it was free-flowing."

After two semesters of medicine at the University of Freiburg, Kunz moved to Kiel, where he studied oceanography and ecology, and completed his training as a research diver.

In addition to research and his work as a TV presenter, Kunz has been touring German-speaking countries since 2012, giving lectures at universities, schools and institutes. There, he presents his fascinating underwater photographs and talks about the threatening changes in the ocean. In his footage and images, he documents not only the abundance of species, but increasingly also their decline, the overfishing of the oceans and the impact of climate change, as well as the destruction caused by pollution.

Ambassador of the seas

When Uli Kunz shares his enthusiasm about the big and small wonders of the water world, you are immediately all ears. He is a gifted storyteller, and he is well aware of that. "What I am good at is collecting this knowledge and communicating complex problems in an understandable way, because marine biology can be presented simply."

With a lot of passion and vivid presentations, Kunz demystifies false myths about the sea in his lectures and instead shows what is really fascinating about marine flora and fauna. And how fragile both are.

When asked about the current state of the oceans, his emotions become more serious. This is "catastrophic," he says. "We are in the process of threatening numerous animal species. Climate change is affecting the underwater world. This is a huge problem that will be with us for many decades to come."

During his active time as a diver, Kunz has watched thriving coral reefs become piles of black rubble where life is no longer possible. While 20 years ago he still saw a lot of eels during night dives in the North Sea, these are now almost threatened with extinction, "because baby eels are fished off in the Atlantic to sell them on the Asian market for a lot of money."

Environmental protection is self-protection

In his view, we humans must finally become aware of one thing.: "It's about ourselves. It is a purely selfish approach to protect nature. If we manage to treat it better, we too will survive much better than is currently the case. If we continue as we are, the damage will be immeasurable." As for biodiversity and climate change, he said, there will continue to be a lot of very bad news in the near term. But none of that is a reason to bury our heads in the sand, he said.

So what gives him hope? "I hardly ever use the word hope. It would be presumptuous to rely on it," Kunz said. Instead, he says, everything is our own responsibility. "I want young people to adopt the perspective that you can make a difference in marine conservation, that you're always educating yourself to understand this world. It's only when we create awareness that we might have a chance." Cutting back and putting society on a "sustainable path" — not just a buzzword — is the key, he says.

Then Kunz enthusiastically tells of an algae farm in Norway and how much space could be freed up in nature if we were to curb much of factory farming. "It's a set screw we could easily turn. The facts are on the table. It just all takes an insanely long time with us humans."

Kunz himself owes his fascination for nature and an understanding of its fragility to his father.

He used to take him on kayak tours and snorkeling at Lake Constance. "If you are led into nature as a small child, you will automatically treat it with respect. And the more you see not only what problems there are in the world, but also what great projects, then you can't overlook them." When asked what else he wants to experience or see, Uli Kunz replies firmly, "I haven't seen everything yet, but I don't want to see everything either. I don't have a bucket list. I'm happy every day about what I get to experience."

This article was originally written in German.